


... what if?

by Nerd_of_Camelot



Series: Black Sheep [8]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Ficlet Collection, Implied Sexual Content, Jack Needs a Hug, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Private Army, Reaper | Gabriel Reyes Needs a Hug, Shorts, What-If, sometimes Jack and Gabe get their hugs, sometimes they dont, these are all short
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:06:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24444802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerd_of_Camelot/pseuds/Nerd_of_Camelot
Summary: What if Jack had told Gabe how he felt in LA?What if Jack had told Gabe the truth about what their relationship was to him?What if Jack told the others about his childhood?... What if?--A collection of one-shots centered around various "what-if" scenarios in the Black Sheep universe.
Relationships: Genji Shimada & Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison, Jesse McCree & Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison, Reaper | Gabriel Reyes & Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison, Reaper | Gabriel Reyes/Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison
Series: Black Sheep [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608928
Kudos: 15





	1. in LA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Jack told Gabe how he felt in LA?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my brain kept bombarding me with these scenarios so I figured I might as well write them while I get ready to have to go back to school

“Hey Gabe?” Jack rolled his head back to look at the larger man, who was bustling about in the kitchen of their little vacation condo.

Genji and Jesse were God-knew where, and Jack didn’t really care right at the moment. They were on vacation, after all. And if they wanted to go tip-toe around each other somewhere else, that was fine. Just meant he got time alone with Gabe.

“Yeah?” Gabe threw a glance at him over his own shoulder.

Jack considered his own choice of words carefully, swallowing. He’d been thinking about this for a long time, and… Fuck it. Cain had done a lot of shit wrong, but he hadn’t raised a coward.

Jack decided it was time to stop running.

He’d loved Vincent to _pieces_ and Vincent breaking up with him had fucked him up something fierce on top of everything else going on at the time, but… He was an adult. He was a grown man. He could do this.

… Not that this was the first time he’d thought about doing this. He always did, really. Always had the thought, never went through with it.

But.

Okay.

Deep breath in.

Slow breath out.

He closed his eyes for a second, then got up.

“Need to talk to you for a sec. You busy?”

“Not with anything important,” Gabe said, almost too quickly, as he sat the bag of groceries in his hand on the kitchen island.

He’d been mid-way through putting shit away. Jack hadn’t even noticed.

Gabe looked at him, and his throat closed up, but…

He tried to smile. Stepped up to him and Gabe opened his arms almost automatically. Jack pressed into his chest and hugged him, and Gabe didn’t question it. Just held him for a moment until Jack forced himself to pull back, step back, and look Gabe in the eyes.

“I think I’m in love with you.” He said, before he could chicken out.

Gabe blinked.

Then smiled, and it was so soft that Jack felt something go tight in his chest.

“Thank fuck.” Gabe said, and pulled him back into a hug, tucking his face into his hair, “Because I was a little worried.”

“You were?”

“Mhm.”

Jack laughed, weak and surprised but relieved all the same. Pressed his face into Gabe’s neck. Breathed and let himself sort of just exist for a few moments.

Maybe things were going to be okay.

Maybe things hadn’t ever really been that bad to begin with.

* * *

“I’ll burn the fuckin’ place to the _ground!”_ Gabe snarled, pacing swiftly back and forth across the wooden floor as he fumed, “Fuckin’ ungrateful―I’ll kill the bastards my _self!”_

Jack didn’t have much to say, didn’t really have the energy to say anything. It was a miracle Gabe had even found him. It’d take another to give him the energy or the voice to reply to Gabe’s incensed ramblings. And he wouldn’t dream of interrupting him, anyway. If he could only move or talk, he’d feel the same way.

As it was, all he could do was sit on the bed and shiver.

Gabriel finally came to a stop, still clearly fuming but attention seeming caught.

Jack had told him everything that he could, before this, what little he remembered and it had apparently matched up with what Gabe knew. And knowing that the very place he’d called home for the last half-decade had done this to him… God. Yeah. He’d be just as angry as Gabe if he could be… But what was Gabe focusing on now?

“You look like shit,” Gabe finally sighed, stepping closer to the bed and Jack had to tip his head back to look at him.

“... Feel like shit.” He managed to reply, voice cracked and pained.

Gabe’s eyes went hard, then went soft. His shoulders sagged.

“Let’s get you laying down.” He said, and his strong hands guided Jack’s aching, sluggish, _freezing_ body down. Got his head on the questionable, old pillow. “We’ll… We’ll be mad about this later.”

“Mm.” Jack agreed, so very eloquently.

Gabe left the room, heading for who-knew-where, and Jack was prepared to just lay there and wait. But then Gabe returned, with his now-dry long coat. He draped it over Jack and the immediate suge of heat at least got most of his shaking to stop.

Then Gabe climbed onto the bed with him, wrapped and arm around him, and pulled him flush against his chest.

“Get some sleep if you can, _cariño.”_

“Mmkay,” Jack shuddered a bit, tried not to curl in on himself when the pain in his body briefly intensified, and closed his eyes.

… If Gabe was here, things would be fine.

They’d go after Phobia together. They’d burn the place to the fucking _ground._ Just like Gabe said.


	2. before LA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Jack had told his friends about Cain's treatment of him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one _might_ get a more in-depth part two once I've gotten the important main-series related junk out of the way.

“Hey, Jack,” Jesse slurred, because he was already drunk and Jack and the others were well on their way to it as well.

Jack could only hum in question, busy chewing on another brownie between swigs of alcohol. Whatever Jesse had to ask, it was probably best that he ask now rather than waiting until any of them got anymore drunk. Right now Jesse would probably even remember the answer tomorrow.

“Ya never talk ‘bout home,” Jesse said, in response to his hum, “Why not?”

Any other time, Jack may have gone stiff. May have made an excuse about it, excused himself from the room, and pretended the question had never been asked. He wasn’t  _ scared _ to talk about Cain and what he’d done, not in the slightest. He just hated the idea of them pitying him for what he’d gone through. It’d be  _ humiliating _ to see the way their eyes went sad after he told them and then every time they looked at him afterwards.

… But this was not any other time, and Jack was…  _ Feeling. _

“Lotsa reasons,” He shrugged, “Mostly cuz Bloomington aint got anything worth talkin’ about.”

“Except your aunt Courtney,” Genji mused, his voice slurring a bit as well.

“Except her, yeah. But Courtney usually  _ is _ the exception.”

“Tell us about ‘er.” Jesse practically demanded, and Genji gave something of a cheer to encourage it.

Jack sighed, and rolled his eyes, but launched into a grand description of Courtney anyway, while the others listened intently, even Gabe, who had not asked.

And, somehow―he wasn’t sure how―, that eventually resulted in a spirited bitching session about his uncle. He spilled his guts about every single thing that Cain had ever done to him from the first time he’d stayed with him and Courtney up to the actual day he’d run away with enough money to join up with Phobia. He didn’t even notice, honestly. He was kind of just going for it but by the time he was done the others were staring at him and he was breathing hard.

… Oops?

“Jesus, Jack.” Gabe finally said.

“I second that statement.” Said Genji, uneasily.

“Oops.” Is what he said out loud, instead of any of the various better-thought responses his mind provided, “Sorry. Guess my brain-to-mouth filter broke for a second there.”

They stared at him.

Jesse looked rightly horrified.

He shifted uncomfortably.

Genji pulled him into a hug and he didn’t fight it. Still didn’t fight it when Jesse joined in, or when Gabe did.

It wasn’t the response that he’d been expecting from them, exactly. He’d expected probably more ribbing at his expense. Maybe the hugs, but like… Individually. Not all at once. Hadn’t really expected them to care, or if they did, for them to care  _ way too much. _

As it was, though, they seemed to just be upset about his upbringing and willing to let him deflect away from it now that he’d opened that particular can of worms.

* * *

The very  _ idea _ that the others would have betrayed him like this filled him with something horrid and primal. Dark and sludgy and totally unforgiving.

He’d―

Oh, he’d rip them all to shreds.

… If.

_ If _ they’d done this.  _ If _ they’d had any part in this.

He could only pray they hadn’t.

He’d made himself so totally, helplessly,  _ hopelessly _ vulnerable to them that them betraying that trust would shatter him. Whatever rose up from the wreckage wouldn’t be him, and it’d set a warpath for vengeance. He wouldn’t ever try to stop it unless―well. Unless he didn’t have proof yet.

Like right now.

He winced minutely, body twinging in pain even now, and looked the low-level Death Order soldier in the eye. It was lucky that someone from Phobia’s black-ops would remember him. Would be willing to help him. He intended to milk the opportunity for all that it was worth.

“Find out everything you can.” He said, like he still had any authority.

But the soldier nodded instantly, acquiescing far too easily for anyone who didn’t think he still had that authority. At least  _ someone _ in that hellhole was loyal.

“I’ll report as often as I can, sir.” The soldier said.

And the look in his eyes, that knowing look, told him that the guy knew already what the most important information was.

* * *

“Jack,” Genji said, hands up in surrender and eyes  _ pleading, _ “I swear, I had no idea. I didn’t want―”

Still furious, Jack slammed the knife he’d been holding into the countertop next to him, point down, with a snarl worthy of any wild canine. And it buried itself further into the wood than it would have when he was still in Phobia. How was that for changes?

Still, he huffed, annoyed and so furious and―

“I  _ know.” _ He bit out, positively  _ steaming. _ “I  _ know _ you didn’t. But  _ god  _ **_dammit._ ** ”

Genji didn’t seem to understand, and Jack hadn’t expected him to.

He tore his respirator off of his face, letting himself breathe unfiltered air for the first time in  _ weeks _ since he’d started tracking Genji down, and slammed it onto the counter as well. Shoved his hands through his hair and fought back a scream.

Screaming wouldn’t help.

It never did.

“God dammit.” He repeated, and hated the tears that sprang to his eyes.

Genji moved toward him instinctively at the first sign of distress that he could really help with and didn’t feel personally threatened by. His hands came up, he took a step forward.

But then the faltered, eyes and even his footing unsure.

Jack sighed.

Fought back a sob.

Sagged and let the bravado drain out of him.

Stared at Genji and Genji stared back, and if a tear escaped while they stared each other down then it was no one’s business. Not even if Genji noticed it and, falteringly, stepped toward him again. Not even if Jack didn’t move and Genji closed the distance and pulled him into a crushing hug.

Not even if Jack hugged back with all the same ferocity.


	3. buried

“Jack,” Gabe began, and Jack was already worried about what he was going to say next. “What is this for you?”

The breath punched out of him immediately, heart thudding in his chest as his stomach twisted. He hated it. He hated that Gabe had to ask, but he understood  _ why  _ he was asking. This had been going on for nearly a year―he  _ had  _ to be curious.  _ Jack  _ was curious.

He sucked in a breath, trying to steady himself. He could do this. This didn’t have to be hard.

He didn’t have to tell Gabriel the truth.

“What do you  _ want  _ it to be for me?” Jack asked in reply, knowing he probably came off as unhelpful.

Gabe groaned in mild annoyance. “Don’t do that,” He grumbled, “Don’t make it about me when I’m asking about you.”

_ Worth a shot, _ Jack thought, and he sighed.

He didn’t  _ have _ to tell Gabe the truth. This could be so horrifically easy―he could lie and the would be it. That would be all there was to it. And, sure, he’d lose what he had with him right now, but it’d be fine. Jack would survive.

Would it suck? Would it hurt like only something like this could hurt him?

Yes.

But it would be better than telling Gabe the truth, right?

… Right?

“... Jack?” Gabe asked, and Jack knew he’d been mulling it over for too long already, “I― You have to  _ think _ about it?”

And Jack sighed. Felt all the will to lie to him drain out because… Because he trusted Gabe. He trusted him with everything he had. He wanted to tell him the truth. He wanted to stay with him.

He loved him.

“No, I―” Jack bit down on his lip, “I’m just. I don’t want to sound like a sentimental fucking  _ idiot, _ Gabe. I trust you and― And getting shot down  _ now _ would fucking  _ suck.” _

Gabe was quiet.

Came around the table Jack was sitting on and Jack  _ tried _ not to look at him. But his eyes still flicked to the other man. Gabe looked…  _ Concerned. _ Like he wasn’t sure what to make of this.

And then Jack realized he was shaking.

Not that  _ Gabe _ was shaking―  _ he _ was shaking. Head to toe, straight up  _ trembling. _

He really was scared of this ending badly, wasn’t he? He was terrified of pouring his heart out to Gabe now and getting it thrown back in his face later.

Before Gabe could speak, he made himself continue.

His voice came out raw, “But getting it thrown back in my face later would suck  _ way _ fucking worse. I can’t do that shit to myself again.”

“... I’m not Vincent,” Gabe said, carefully.

“I know you’re not,” Jack sighed, and looked away forcefully when he felt tears threatening to escape. Scrubbed them away with his sleeve. “Doesn’t mean I’m not fuckin’ scared of you doing the same shit to me, though. Don’t have to be my ex-boyfriend to end up realizing you don’t want to be with me.”

Gabe was quiet, and Jack swallowed.

“Jack.” Gabe finally said, “Just say it.” Another, brief this time, pause, “Please?”

What came out of Jack was a somewhat tormented half-sob, but after biting down on his cheek to stop it he took another breath.

Tried to steady himself.

“... I’m in love with you.” He finally said, voice breaking, “So ‘this’ is… This is as close as I feel comfortable with coming to dating you.”

Footsteps.

A hand under his chin, making him look at Gabe even through teary eyes.

Gabe swept at his cheeks and his eyes, brushing away the tears and just looking at him for a moment. He didn’t say anything, and Jack wasn’t sure if that was because he was personally making a fool of himself right now or because Gabe wanted to wait until he was done crying like a child. So he sniffed, tried to breathe normally. Tried to stop crying.

Finally, Gabe leaned in a little closer, kissed his forehead.

“Thank you for being honest,” He uttered, against his forehead, “You think you’re ever going to be okay with dating me?”

It was an honest question, but there was a soft, joking air to it.

Jack felt himself smile a bit.

“Probably.” He admitted, softly, “If you keep being so sweet to me all the time.”

Gabe grinned. Pulled back to look at him and wiped his eyes for him again and, chuckling, said, “I can do that. Gimme a kiss?”

“Gladly.” And he leaned up, and kissed him, and Gabe kept smiling against his lips.

* * *

“It hurts,” He whimpered, and Gabe didn’t say anything.

He just held him against his chest and pet his hair and stayed  _ silent. _

He wasn’t expecting comforting words, not from Gabe. Not when he knew Gabe was  _ livid. _ He shuddered, hard, and Gabe just squeezed him. He was  _ so cold. _ He almost sobbed, but he buried his face into Gabe’s chest and shivered and tried not to whimper.

It felt like the SEP all over again.

And the worst part about that was knowing that no amount of pain medication would help him.

“Gabe,” He said, voice breaking.

“Shhh, cariño.” Gabe replied, voice surprisingly soft for how unbelievably angry he must be right now.

But he pushed on. “Gabe. It was the commander.”

And Gabe went stiff. “You’re sure?”

“It had to be,” He insisted, “He’s the― the last thing I remember after Genji.”

And telling Gabe that, telling him he was sure the commander had drugged him and left him to die in the tundra outside the base was a good way to get Gabe to leave him here and go burn the place to the ground, but… He needed Gabe to know.

He  _ needed _ Gabe to know.

“I’ll tear his  _ fucking _ arms off,” Gabe hissed, squeezing Jack tighter, but he didn’t move.

Jack shuddered, but it was comforting to know that Gabe wasn’t leaving yet.


End file.
